March off: Nothing fuels an employee's anger more than the college basketball tournament

Kaspiic/Dreamstime.com

There's nothing wrong with some basketball-based bonding during the month of March, but he cautions that it's up to the employer to make sure things don't get out of hand.

There's nothing wrong with some basketball-based bonding during the month of March, but he cautions that it's up to the employer to make sure things don't get out of hand. (Kaspiic/Dreamstime.com)

Marco Buscaglia, Tribune Content AgencyCareerBuilder

It's just not fair. You, working so hard while the rest of the office gets a pass.

First, your co-workers with kids get all those day care-fueled sick days. Or wait, maybe you're mad because you have to go home and coach floor hockey while the single people get to stick around and order Thai food with the boss. What about the smokers, with their 15 minutes of tobacco time every hour? Or how about that guy with the bad back who has the $1,000-chair? Your back hurts, too. And since when did we start letting people wear jeans? Or work from home? And use their work phone to check in on their mom? You call your mom from home. Why can't everyone else?

Well, if you're the type of person who feels a constant, internal burn about how you're getting screwed over by The Man, get ready. Your blood may soon boileth over -- the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament is upon is.

Social schmocial

"For years, I've had to listen to co-workers tell me how I should be in this pool or that pool, how I'm missing out on all this social time with my co-workers but that's a load of crap," says Erin Myers, a 38-year-old marketing planner in Santa Ana, California. "I'm not an old curmudgeon and what I'm telling you is all kinds of tongue-in-cheek because my friends at work know I can't stand basketball so I make sure I point out how much time they waste every year when the tournament starts."

Anthony Diaz rejects that "wasting time" notion. "How can you possibly be wasting time when you're participating in social interactions with the people you work with? We've done drafts and we do pools and yes, we have games on at the office on Thursdays and Fridays," says the 28-year-old Chicago paralegal. "Someone complained last year and one of the partners basically said 'too bad' because we were engaging in a great American tradition. I'm OK with that."

Diaz's co-worker, Tim Sole, isn't so sure. "I'm not really a basketball fan but I enjoy the tournament. I think it's fun. But I do think we go overboard. I think that the fact that everyone has a computer right in front of them and basically has a game on the entire afternoon is kind of annoying," he says. "I don't really follow sports too much but it's not like I'm watching episodes of 'The Crown' all day long. That really wouldn't be fair, would it?"

Show some restraint

Brian O'Conner, a workplace consultant in Baltimore, says there's nothing wrong with some basketball-based bonding during the month of March, but he cautions that it's up to the employer to make sure things don't get out of hand.

"Anything that is sanctioned by the company that involves gambling is a definite no-no but it's OK to have a few events, like a lunch or a viewing party, during the tournament," O'Conner says. "But whatever you do, you need to consider the interests of the employees who may not care about basketball. It's okay to do something around the tournament as long as there are ways for uninterested co-workers to participate. If you offer free sandwiches or free pizza one day while you turn the games on, you're basically offering a free lunch and it's up to your employees whether or not they want to participate."

While O'Conner says it's not a form of discrimination not to include all employees in every single company event, he did say that it is easy for employees to feel slighted when their interests aren't represented. "You're trying to build camaraderie at work, not destroy it. If managers are mindful of that, they'll be fine," he says.

Myers agrees. "I don't mind the parties or the lunches," she says. "But it's not like the company is going out of its way to support all of my interests. If they let me blow off two afternoons a week for a few weeks so I could take my bike to the beach that would be different. But they don't. I sit at my desk doing my work while everyone else is huddled around a TV. Companies just need to be fair."

Sole has a slightly different take. "You can watch all the basketball you want," he says. "I'll be outside walking up and down Michigan Avenue or sitting in a Starbucks reading a book. You're not working, so don't expect me to, either."